Honestly, do you think that management thinks about what might happen in their future. They all have latched onto someone higher up that protects them and rewards them for anything that suggests loyalty. The secret to success beyond reason at Merck has always been being on the goo side of someone up the power chain. If you were "in" you were taken care of; if you were not in, you never would be in and your happiness, your career progression, and your job security it mattered depended little on how wonderful you were. This system was in place even during the most successful years. However, in those years Merck managed to recruit a hell of a lot of real talent and had a lot of people - still - that could harness that talent during the 5-10 years that they were going to stay trying to succeed. These days, management is largely made of the kiss-asses that had their incompetence protected over the last 25 years and the company hasn't recruited top talent in a decade. Management is never going to worry about the consequences of treating good people badly, it is a behavior that hasn't mattered throughout their entire career. However, as they consider more and more the sad state of the company, they will consider getting as much out of the old girl as soon as they can. That combination of no decency towards those that are still blindly getting things done and a me-first management style can only make things much worse for anyone unlucky enough to not be part of the "in" crowd but also not be part of those that get a package. That would be about 50,000 of you all.

this person totally gets it...I wish now that I had not wasted so many years in the pharmaceutical industry and at Merck...It really is pretty much a Ponzi scheme at this point...As the above poster explains in detail, unless you are part of the "in crowd" at Merck, you are pretty much screwed.